The Beauty of Rochelle

Gallery Wall above stairs progress — Work in Progress

I've wanted to frame this one for such a long time! And I finally did! As you may or may not know, I am currently in the process of turning the walls above my stairs in to somewhat of a Gallery wall. Here's a quick pic for context ----------->

And this is just about 5 % of surface covered up!

So there will be a lot more frames. Here's a step by step guide if you wanted to try out an upcycling project like this yourself and of course, product list below!

Step 1.

Wooden frame, preparing for repainting — I used Finnabair's Heavy Gesso in White

First off you're gonna want to clean your frame, remove the old glass and if necessary give it a light sand. This one was made out of wood so I skipped the sanding bit, cleaned it and moves on to priming! When up-cycling frames like this one I usually use the backing as my base for decoupage so I primed both the frame and the backing.

Step 2.

Rice paper decoupage frame — Rice paper Applied to the backboard of the Frame

Next, I decoupaged. The Rice paper used here is called "Rochelle" and it is by a brand called Decoupage Queen (who I have worked for the past almost 4! years) .

My favourite glue to use at the moment is Pentart "Decoupage Glue Ultra Matte" because as it says on the tin - it is VERY EXTRA MATTE and I'm all about that life.

Step 3.

Pentart Ochre matte acrylic paint — 2 Coats of Pentart "Ochre" acrylic paint

Frame Painting Time! I used Pentart Matte Acrylic paint in "Ochre" colour for my base. I wanted to pull colours from the print to make it all blend super well together.

After 2 coats and drying overnight it was ready to be waxed!

Step 4.

Finnabair Sage Leaves and Sepia matte waxes — Blend of both "Sage Leaves" and 'Sepia" waxes

Before I started adding any colourful waxes on top, I used Rustoleum clear furniture wax to seal my Ochre colour. This makes it easy to clean away any colourful waxes I add on top. Then - I used Finnabair Matte "Sage Leaves" and "Sepia" waxes one on top of each other all over the frame with the exception of the middle part that sticks out the most! I had a different plan for that part. Sage and Sepia waxes bended together really nicely and they pulled together those nice muted tones from the print.

Step 5.

Gilded frame — Gold leaf in all it's glory

GILDING!!! MY FAVOURITE!!!

So!

I used Finnabair Gilding Glue and Metallic gold leaves from Amazon. The trick here is that it does get messy. Another slightly unexpected bit was that these gold leaves decided to absolutely get stuck to places where they were not meant to stick to at all! BUT.. that's ok because I am a big fan of messy gold look, where it looks a little bit grungy and rugged and not so neatly put together!

Step 6.

Liberon Black patinating wax on gold frame — Black wax applied in to frame crevices

Finally, some black wax to darken up the corners, show off the relief of the frame, make everything pop a bit more! This particular wax that I always tend to use is solvent based so be sure to take safety precautions if you will use it!

Trust me, you do not want to get contact dermatitis on your hands, it's not pretty! (I've done it so please don't make same mistakes I did)

Here comes the finished result!!!